Liz is waiting for her big break in Hollywood, when a different offer comes her way. The wealthy Naomi Baum, a best-selling author, asks Liz to impersonate her on the Ted Hillman Show. The reclusive Naomi cannot bear public appearances but is desperate to make contact with another guest on the show: Miro Bogdan, the son she has abandoned as a baby. On the set, Liz gives a convincing performance as Naomi Baum and attracts the passions meant for the author. Miro, now a successful installation artist, harbours a deadly hatred for his mother and is plotting her murder. Ted Hillman, the host of the show, is fascinated with Naomi Baum and romances her stand-in. Liz gives a superb performance as Ted's love interest. But is it a performance, or is Liz beginning to live Naomi's life? {Guernica Editions}

Erika Rummel has taught at the University of Toronto and WLU, Waterloo. She has lived in big cities (Los Angeles, Vienna) and small villaes in Argentina, Romania, and Bulgaria. She has written extensively on social history, translated the correspondence of inventor Alfred Nobel, the humanist Erasmus, and the Reformer Wolfgang Capito. She is the author of a number of historical novels, most recently The Road to Gesualdo and The Inquisitor's Niece, which was judged best historical novel of the year by the Colorado Independent Publishers' Association. In 2018 the Renaissance Society of America honoured her with a lifetime achievement award. She divides her time between living in Toronto and Santa Monica, California. The Loneliness of the Time Traveller is her eighth novel.

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Morgan, relentlessly tenacious - albeit admirably bodacious - tackles each audition or dullicious diner-hostess (read: rent-paying) get-together with gusto, a fact which may explain why the faded middle-ancient finds herself lost in the role of dog-walker for one pill-popping scene-stopping melodramarama prima diva, the titular Naomi (Baum), five years her senior.